Intelligence

Question 1

Boring (1923) Definition of Intelligence

Answer 1

Intelligence is what tests test

Question 2

Weschler’s (1975) definition of intelligence

Answer 2

The capacity of a person to understand the world and meet its demands

Question 3

Intelligence as a property of the brain:

1. Eysenck
2. Jenson

Answer 3

Eysenck – transmission accuracy

Jenson – neural speed

Question 4

Intelligence as behaviour

1. Anastassi
2. Estes

Answer 4

Anastassi: Not an entity within the organism but a quality of behaviour
Estes: adaptive behaviour of an individual
Can still be measured and ranked
Term adaptive is vague

Question 5

Intelligence as ID ability and skill:

1. Anderson
2. Holyoack

Answer 5

Anderson: people differ in their range of skills and the quality of each skill
Holyoak: success depends upon possession of appropriate schemas
Hard to measure

Question 6

Nature – nurture

Answer 6

Structure of intelligence ≠ origin

Question 7

What is IQ?

Answer 7

IQ: age-standardised intelligence
Standardised raw test scores rescaled:
IQ scores have been re-scaled to have the centre point (mean) = 100 IQ points, and a standard deviation of 15 IQ points.

Question 8

What is g?

Answer 8

g: underlying cause of intelligence
Spearman - Mental energy/power
Popularly viewed as the only ability worth testing

Question 9

Single Factor Theories - Spearman

Answer 9

Performance at mental tasks correlated
Every mental task determined by g
Correlations not perfect
Performance = g + s
Specific (s) is unique to a task.
Does not predict other tasks.
Useless for general predictions.

Question 10

What is s?

Answer 10

s = a specific intelligence

Question 11

Hierarchical Theories - Burt (1940s)

Answer 11

Developed with statistical techniques
g predicts reasonably well
Some tasks need specific abilities
Performance = g + specific ability + s

Burt: g at the top of the hierarchy
g = sum total of more specific abilities e.g. arithmetical ability
specific ability = sum total of s’s for that ability e.g. algebra

Question 12

Cattell & Horn (1970s)’s 5 higher order abilities

Answer 12

gf Fluid Intelligence
gc Crystallised Intelligence
gv Visualisation
gr Retrieval Fluency
gs Cognitive Speed

Question 13

Cattell & Horn (1970s) identifies how many primary factors of intelligence?

Answer 13

27

Question 14

Cattell & Horn (1970s)’s 2 types of general intelligence (gi)?

Answer 14

fluid and crystallised

Question 15

Features of Fluid intelligence

Answer 15

Domain-free reasoning ability
Tests should not have cultural bias
gf closely linked to g
Thinking abstractly
Independent of learning
Thought to decline with age

Question 16

Features of Crystallised intelligence

Answer 16

Domain-specific skills/knowledge
Involves knowledge from past learning
Based on facts and experience
Tests will have cultural bias

Question 17

Multiple Ability Theories

Thurstone (1930s) - 7 Primary Mental Abilities (WAISS)

Answer 17

Assumes g does not exist

Primary Mental Abilities:
1 Verbal comprehension
2 Numerical ability
3 Perceptual speed
4 Spatial visualisation
5 Verbal fluency
6 General reasoning
7 Memory

Question 18

Guilford (1960s) proposed intelligence was the result of how many independent abilities?

Answer 18

120 (later updated to 150)

Crits: Categories not grounded in cognition or psychometrics, used homogeneous samples (basketball players)

Question 19

Gardner (1993)’s Eight separate intelligences

Skills and talents isolated

Answer 19

1 Logical-mathematical
2 Linguistic
3 Spatial
4 Musical
5 & 6 Personal (x2)
7 Bodily-kinesthetic
8 Naturalistic (added later)

Question 20

Contextual Theories (IDs) - Ceci, Howe, Richardson

Answer 20

Numbers provide no worthwhile measure of what people can do
Everyone behaves intelligently in his/her own context
Nobody behaves intelligently outside of his/her own context
Performance predicted by knowledge, and learning by motivation

Question 21

Psychometrics tests
&
RAVEN’S PROGRESSIVE MARTICIES

Answer 21

WAIS, WISC, BSID (infant), Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales

RPM - Measures the ability to generate, transform, and manipulate different types of novel information in real time = a non-verbal estimate of fluid intelligence gf